Sydney Common — Restaurant in Sydney

This was my first time I dined at this restaurant. I was appalled by the very low standard service I received there . Everything was ok until the prawn dish arrived . I instantly knew the prawn was still raw upon first bite. As I was not sure whether this was the proper way to cook the prawns with this dish ( the dish says barbecue prawns) and my brother agreed with me after tasting the prawn. I passed my query to the restaurant manager, Ernezto and he said he would check with the chef . In my mind , I was a little surprised with his answer as he seemed to me an experienced staff which meant he should know whether this was the usual way to cook the prawns. Anyway , he took away the dish , my plate but NOT my brother s plate. He came back a while later , saying that this was the usual way to cook the prawns ( in my opinion, surprising for barbecue prawns ) but if we did not like it, the chef would make another one for us with the prawns more cooked. We thanked him for that but still , he did not take away my brother s plate. Anyone could see majority of the prawn was left behind . Later on , the plates were replaced by another waiter. However, when the new dish arrived , there were only two prawns (. The dish was supposed to have three prawns). We could not understand why and thought that probably was an oversight, hence we asked the manager again. I was so disappointed and very unhappy with his reply . First , he intentionally raised his voice with his answer, saying : the chef only replaced the two you did not eat. Your brother ate the whole third prawn . How ridiculous was his response. Firstly , his tone was quite blunt . Secondly, he was implying that we were lying (. As my brother said he only took a small bite ) and taking advantage of the restaurant but the manager could not prove that as my brother s plate was taken away already. He just kept on saying : no , you ate the whole prawn. Imagine a customer has a couple of bites from a steak , then complain to the waiter that the steak is too well done as the customer requested medium initially, any average restaurant would replace the customer with another full piece of steak and not a smaller one ! Understandably, we felt quite humiliated and did not want to argue with him. As mentioned above , not just being rude , he purposely raised his voice, with the intention to make the next table able to hear the conversation. I did not mind at all . As a matter of fact, one of the customers of the next table turned out to be a food journalist and it was indeed very nice for her to know the this awful incident as we later talked to her about what exactly happened. To further add to our disappointment, as I am a Bonvoy platinum member, upon paying the bill, the waiter said he could not add points straight away to my account as they did not have the related machine ( if I understood correctly) . I was sceptical with this , so I went to the lobby reception, the bonvoy counter and asked about this . One could see the facial reaction of the reception staff when I mentioned the restaurant did not have the machine to add my points straight away . Anyway, the reception staff helped me with this. Sydney Common is a restaurant under an international 5 star hotel, how can this unacceptable service be allowed ? Any customer would feel so humiliated under the same situation. I feel sorry to disclose the manager s name but I have no choice . The was one moment that he actually sit down next to my brother on the same sofa, talking to us! Is that a 5 star restaurant service ? How disappointing and such a waste . Frankly , the oysters and the pork were above average but that kind of service is just repulsive. I forgot to mention , the restaurant was not full but it was not easy at all to get a waiter to attend , They rather preferred to stand far away and pretended not looking to our direction despite we waved our hands. So so...

Service staff were amazing; friendly, helpful, informative and went beyond what is required to make the dining experience a pleasant one. Honestly, the staff accorded us with a phenomenal service experience, our servers being Mateo & another female server.

There are several dishes that are highlights; the roasted duck which is presented with flare in a bed of lavender, grilled prawns in a sauce that is velvety with just a touch of spice which compliments the prawns rather than overpower them, rustic sourdough cavatelli with truffle sauce and with the exception of the beef tartare, we tried all the snack foods and were impressed by the flavour combinations and the contrast of subtle flavours of the Yellowfin Tuna rice crisps and those with added punch such as the octopus in a mild light labneh. We had desserts and felt them to be ordinary; they had plenty of taste but nothing out of the ordinary.

Unfortunately, the restaurant concept, food and charges are a letdown. Dishes are a hit and miss; you are either met with an amazing tasteful and well-presented dish followed by one or two dishes that are average at best. Time between courses was too long and did not really have a flow; almost closing time when mains arrived even though we arrived and started 5 hours beforehand.

It’s very disappointing that If you have more than 8 people dining, you are forced to have the market menu (even if you make reservations weeks in advance and want to pre-order particular dishes, as many of the dishes on the market menu are not filling nor have any worthy tastes or placement on the menu).

We found it astounding that you are also required to pay a surcharge of 10% for bookings of 8 or greater. Being taxed for spending more money is extremely silly and deserves rebuke.

I would only return to have the handful of tasty dishes that I could choose from the al carte menu; the market menu is a waste of time...

First off, the food was acceptable for a 1 hat restaurant. The grilled octopus skewers was very tender with a hint of smoke from the grill, excellenty paired with labeh and fermented chilli crisps. The beef tartar with quail egg was good but i didnt find it mind blowingly good. The grilled pork chop was certainly a highlight with a incredible savoury pork fat sauce. The loin section was a bit dry and i wouldve preferred it to be medium. I understand generally people are squeamish with medium pork so that i understand.

The mains doesnt come with any accompliments so there is an expectation to order sides. $6 for half a slice of sourdough is a bit mean.

The biggest let down was the service. My section waiter wasnt very approachable. Fine it was a busy Saturday dinner service. What i cant tolerate is rudiness to the tables left and right of me. Constantly highlighting 'i cant understand you', being very snappy with them with zero patience of explaining the menu just cause they were international tourists with poor english.

Service fell off a cliff at 8:30 or 8:45pm. No one approached our section and it was extremely difficult to attract the attention of any section waiter. Props to the food runners for being hospitaliable and attempted to attract attention for me. My empty mains plate and empty water glasses was left for far too long. Me having to stand up and walk to a waiter to ask for a dessert menu is just unacceptable. Same thing with attempting to pay the bill.

For $130 a head, this level of service is such a let down. There are so many other hatted restaurants with much better service with better or similar food quality for the same price. I have received better service from my local bistro. Its seriously letting down the...